Hyderabad, Dec 10 (IANS): Two of the passengers who arrived in Hyderabad from 'at risk' countries on Friday have tested positive for Covid-19 and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing, a health official said.

Both the passengers were isolated at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS), where doctors were closely monitoring them.

A total of 668 passengers arrived at Hyderabad Airport on Friday from 'at risk' countries. The RT-PCR tests of two of them turned out to be positive. They were immediately shifted to the government-run TIMS in special ambulances.

With this, the number of passengers from 'at risk' countries who have tested positive for Covid has gone up to 15. All 13 passengers had tested negative for the new variant Omicron on December 6.

The samples for genome sequencing were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) or the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD).

So far, 3,235 passengers have arrived in Hyderabad from 'at risk' countries since December 1.

All passengers are being screened at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Those tested negative will be home quarantined for seven days. They will be re-tested on the eighth day and if found negative, they will have to further self-monitor themselves for the next seven days.

Meanwhile, the state reported 207 new cases during the last 24 hours that ended at 5.30 p.m. on Friday. The cumulative tally rose to 6,77,954.

One person succumbed to the virus during the period, taking the death toll so far to 4,004.

The state has a total of 3,897 cases under treatment or isolation.